The 13th general election held on May 5 set a number of records, one
of it being the highest number of people turning up to vote. This
election is now expected to set yet another record that is not going to
look good for Malaysia in the face of the rest of the world: a record
number of election petitions.

Both Pakatan Rakyat coalition
members and the BN are expected to file these election petitions for
both state and parliamentary seats and going by earlier reports, at
least 70 such petitions are expected to be filed, with the results of
the election having been gazetted on May 22.

Petitions
must be filed within 21 days of the gazetting. According to earlier
news reports, Pakatan intends to file more than 40 election petitions,
with PKR alone planning to file 27, while the BN is considering to file
about 30.

Effectively, the last day for the filing of the
petitions will be June 12. Section 34 of the Election Offences Act
allows the voter, the candidate who lost or other candidates who
contested in the election to file the petition.

The Act also stipulates the relief that can be sought by the petitioner:

A declaration that the election is void;

A declaration that the person was not duly elected or ought not to have been returned (declared the winner); and

Where
the seat is claimed for an unsuccessful candidate on ground that he had
the majority of lawful votes, a scrutiny of the votes be done.

The
judge the hearing election petition is called an election judge and
these people must be High Court judges and are given six months to
dispose of the case.

The decision of the election judge can be
appealed before the Federal Court, within 14 days, failing which the
decision of the election judge is deemed as final.

Going by the
intent of political parties working to file the petitions, the courts
will see a surge in such cases, which need to be disposed of quickly.
The question is whether this is going to be an easy task.Bukit Bintang and Likas cases

Malaysia
has seen several important election petition cases such as the Bukit
Bintang election petition of 1995 and the Likas election petition of
1999.

In the Bukit Bintang case, Wee Choo Keong (left)
won the election, but this was contested by Dr Lee Chong Meng of the
MCA. Lee lost his appeal, and Wee later lost the seat, after he was
fined RM7,000 for contempt of court and therefore, disqualified as an
MP.

However, the Election Court made an unprecedented move by naming Lee as the Bukit Bintang MP, despite losing at the ballot box.

In
the case of Likas, two election petitions were filed - one by former
Sabah chief minister Haris Salleh and the other by PBS candidate Dr
Chong Eng Leong, who is now with the PKR.

In this landmark case,
the election judge found that people who are not qualified to vote to
have voted in the election and therefore nullified the result that saw
Yong Teck Lee declared as the winner.

Thelandmark decision
that saw a challenge to the electoral roll arose from "questionable
people" said to be non-citizens allowed to vote through what is now
known as "Project IC" or "Project M", which is an on-going matter before
the Royal Commission of Inquiry into illegal immigrants in Sabah.

However,
since then the government has amended the Election Act 1958 with the
addition of a new Section 9A that bar the citizens from challenge the
electoral roll drawn up by the Election Commission, which comes under
the Prime Minister's Department.

Bribery, threats and procedural irregularities

Despite challenges to the electoral roll being thrown out by the courts, as proven in several recent cases filed by Klang MP Charles Santiago and Lembah Pantai MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, election petitions can still be filed.

Under
the Election Offences Act, an election petition can only be filed on
specific grounds, such as bribery being involved, threats and procedural
irregularities.

Lawyer Wan Mutalib Embong, who has appeared for
PAS in numerous election petitions, believes allegations of bribery,
threats and procedural irregularities can still be raised in election
petitions, despite the petitioners not being able to question the
electoral roll.

"However, the evidence must be strong," Wan Mutalib said when contacted.

PAS legal bureau chief Asmuni Awi (left),
who is tasked with the election petitions this time around, agrees with
Wan Mutalib. The standard of proof for such cases should be "beyond
reasonable doubt" and the petitioner must therefore have a strong case,
Asmuni said.

"At present we are investigating the cases to build a strong case," he said.

"I have won all of them when I acted for the winner. And I have lost all of them when I acted for the loser (or the petitioner).

"Let
me tell all of you how high the standard of proof in an election
petition is. And this is not the standard set just by our courts. It is
the standard set by the Indian courts; the Canadian courts as well as
the United Kingdom courts. So, please... don't say our courts are
biased," Azhar said

"I
acted for Zaid Ibrahim in the Hulu Selangor by-election. The prime
minister said if BN won, he would give RM3 million to the Chinese school
(if I remember correctly). Some 3,000 people were at the ceramah. BN
won. Cheques were delivered the next morning. I lost.

"You see, I
have to show how the result was substantially affected by the act which
formed the complaint. That is the burden," Azhar wrote on his Facebook page recently.

He
further states that one could show thousands of videos of Bangladeshis
in a bus, people getting paid and blackouts at counting centres, but in
the election court, such evidences may not have any weight.

This
is because, as stated earlier, the Likas election court case was a major
blow to the ruling coalition, which caused it to change the election
law so that the people can no longer challenge the electoral roll.

Another lawyer, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar (left), who together with Azhar had acted for Zaid, had also written on the issue in The Edge and posted on his blog.
Malik contends that the election court is limited in its scope because
of the restrictive approach laid down over time by the Federal Court.

"This
requires such courts to act strictly by reference to the legislation
that circumscribes such courts, rather than the underlying purpose of
the law.

"As such, though the courts recognise the need for due
emphasis to be given to the overriding principles of democracy, and the
need to protect the purity of the election process, they are often times
left powerless to deal with what might reasonably be perceived as
electoral impropriety by an unduly strict interpretation of the
legislation imposed on them by the apex court," says Malik

Petitioners go through a minefield

This,
Malik added, has caused lawyers and petitioners "to navigate through a
minefield" of procedural obstacles that have ultimately drastically
reduced the number of, otherwise potentially, successful challenges.

"The
strictness of this approach has undermined the right of the voter to a
free and fair election and the associated right of meaningful access to
justice."

He
also cited a 2008 decision of Justice David Wong Dak Wah, now a Court
of Appeal judge, that if a "strict observance approach" is adopted, no
citizen would be able to act for himself or herself in filing an
election petition because, as surely as night follows day, the petition
would be knocked out by preliminary objections.

"Further, if the
respondents' contention is sustained, the petitioner will have to go
through the relevant provisions of the Election Act, Election Offences
Act or Election (Conduct of Elections) Regulations 1981 with a fine
tooth comb and put the relevant provisions in the petition. That would
be a task a petitioner will not be able to fulfil.

"In election
cases, what chance does a person who wants to file an election petition
himself or herself have? My answer would be next to none and that would,
in my view, make the constitutional right of access to justice an
illusionary one.

"The remedies of law should be accessible to
the ordinary people and laws should not be interpreted in such a manner
that only rocket scientists can access remedies in the law, as that
cannot ever be the intention of Parliament," wrote Justice Wong.

Malik further said that he was writing this not to discourage the aggrieved parties to avoid the courts.

"They
must seek recourse and present their respective cases as best as they
can. I doubt, however, that the court actions will in themselves serve
to assuage the discontented amongst us."- hafiz yatim,malaysiakini

PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar has been stopped by Sabah immigration from entering the state.

According to the Lembah Pantai MP, the immigration officers at the Kota
Kinabalu International Airport are currently arranging for her
deportation.

"I have been stopped by Sabah Immigration and
instructed to return (home) by the Sabah Chief Minister's Office. Such
is democracy post-13th general election. Just you wait, BN!" she said
defiantly on Twitter at about 7.30pm this evening.

She also said that she was not allowed to meet Penampang MP Darell Leiking who is acting as her lawyer.

Nurul
Izzah is the second PKR vice president to be not allowed entry, with
fellow veep and Batu MP Tian Chua put on the Sabah immigration blacklist
soon after the Lahad Datu incident broke out in February.

"There
are other MPs who will be denied entry into Sabah. When pressed for the
names (of those who will be) denied access (immigration said it is)
deemed a secret," Nurul Izzah added.

Previously, PKR deputy
president Azmin Ali's aide Hilman Idham was also stopped from entering
the state, along with Bersih 2.0 steering committee member Syukri Razab,
who is a Sabah native.At about 8.20pm, Nurul tweeted that she
was denied access to her lawyers and was escorted by three Sabah
immigration officers on board a plane.-malaysiakini

We have been told that UMNO has 3.2 million members. So how come it got only 3.2 million votes? Assuming all its members voted for their glorious party, then UMNO’s votes came from its own members. It can’t speak on behalf of the Malaysian people. It can’t even speak on behalf of the 7.8 million Malays who voted on the 5th May 2013 election.So where did the Perkasa guy get his figures when he declared that the UMNO government should be thankful to the Malays for voting in UMNO and keeping it in power. 4.6 million Malays chose not to vote for UMNO. Unless 4.6million is smaller than 3.2million.

We don't want to erase UMNO. UMNO can remain as it is- irrelevant and attracting the crass, crude and myopic leaders and adherents. The rest of the Malay race want to move forward. They only want to do so without UMNO.

BN vs PR and vote distribution

party

votes

%votes

seats

%seats

BN

5,237,699

47.38

133

59.91

PR

5,623,984

50.87

89

40.09

Source SPR

BN has more than 7 million members. It got only 5.24 million votes. 2 million BN members did not vote for BN. BN can’t even speak for the Malaysian people.

It is clear PR got more popular votes but that success is negated by gerrymandering and the uneven distribution of voters per seat. PR has to contest in bigger populated areas which could accommodate more parliamentary and state seats. UMNO and BN represent seats which have less voice than the seats represented by PR. 1 seat contested by PR is equivalent to 2 seats won by BN.

But let us take on the Perkasa man on his declaration of Malay support to UMNO. UMNO got 3.2 million votes. While its candidates were all Malays, its voters were not. How many non-Malay voters voted for UMNO candidates on that 5th of May?

Let’s assume only 15%. That means 85% of the 3.2 million or 2.75 million voters who crossed X on the ballot papers were Malays. So, the non-Malays who voted for UMNO candidates amounted to nothing and instead were branded ingrates. So next time, don't vote for UMNO.

How many Malay voters came out to vote? 7.8million. what does this mean? It means 5 million Malays did not vote UMNO on the 5th of May.How much did Najib spend on BR1Ms? He spent RM2 billion on BR1M 2012. For 2013, he spent another RM3.5billion. He spent a total of RM5. 5billion on 11 million recipients. Out of the 11 million, 4 million were previous recipients.

In the first year he gave RM500 each to 4 million people. In the 2nd year, he gave RM500 each to 3 million new recipients. The number of people who received BR1M over a period of 2 years was 7 million.

Despite paying off 7million people, BN secured 3.2 million votes. How many of those who got RM500 each voted for BN? Assuming 90% of the recipients were Malays, then there were 6.3 million Malay BR1M recipients.

How many Malay votes did UMNO get? 3.2 million votes. 3 million Malay BR1M recipients did not vote UMNO who gave them RM500 each.

Why? Because they know the government got the money from the withdrawn subsidies totalling RM20billion. If the government gave out RM5.5billion, where is the rest of the RM14.5billion?

Is UMNO planning to use this RM14.5 billion to give loans to its cronies and surrogate businesses?- YB.Mohd.Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz.@sakmongkol ak47

Gender-blind Selangor exco line-up springs up women's power...

No, there isn't any of the patronising gender-based quotas
reserving places for the 'fairer sex', and in spite of this, Selangor
appears to lead the way in showing that its female elected
representatives are no pushovers when it comes to ruling the state.

In
keeping with Pakatan Rakyat's commitment to be gender-blind and
merit-based, Subang Jaya's popular state assemblywoman Hannah Yeoh has
been appointed as speaker of the state assembly, replacing Sungai Pinang
state assemblyman Teng Chang Khim.

In addition, four Exco seats
will see women running the show, namely Bukit Lanjan state assemblywoman
Elizabeth Wong, Batu Tiga state rep Rodziah Ismail and Dr Daroyah Alwai
from Sementa.

This also means PKR's representation in the state
cabinet - with the exception, of course, of Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid
Ibrahim - is comprised of women.

The other is PAS’s Selat Klang state assemblywoman Dr Halimah Ali, who is being retained in the line-up.

The
new Exco members will be sworn-in tomorrow at Istana Alam Shah in
Klang. None of the state party leaders from PAS, PKR and DAP will be
among them.

The line-up this time will comprise of four from PAS
and three from PKR and DAP respectively, in compliance with a request by
the Selangor Sultan that six Malays and four non-Malays be appointed to
the 10-member council to better reflect the state assembly's racial
composition.

But men can still breath a sigh a relief to know that they are still not endangered, for now at least!

PKR's
Rafizi Ramli tells Wan Ahmad Wan Omar to answer allegations of
electoral fraud instead of being a spokesperson for the ruling party. Election Commission deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar should stop making statements like a Barisan Nasional leader, said PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli today.
“He should focus on addressing the electoral fraud that happened during
the general election such as the indelible ink fiasco and the
blackouts. Leave political statements to people like Home Minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi,” said Rafizi at a press conference today. Also present were PKR vice president Fuziah Salleh and Sungai Petani MP Johari Abdul.
Yesterday, Wan Ahmad challenged PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim to boycott
Parliament if he was disputing the general election results. Several
analysts have also called upon Anwar to stop the Black 505 rallies and
focus his energy on strengthening the opposition and contribute to
nation building. Hurling brickbats at Wan Ahmad, Rafizi said that
the EC official’s statements against Pakatan Rakyat only showed that the
former was not impartial in his conduct.“It is not his place to
ask Anwar to boycott Parliament. Wan Ahmad can’t even get proper
indelible ink but now he wants to meddle in parliamentary affairs,” said
the Pandan MP. On the academics’ statement, Rafizi urged them to
attend the rallies to see how people are upset over the electoral fraud
allegation. “Get out of your offices and come to the rallies
attended by the 51% who voted for Pakatan. If you are against it, you
are part of the 47% minority,” he said. Rafizi added that there can be no talk of nation building when the government in place was elected using fraudulent methods.
“We cannot continue in a situation where the majority questions the
legitimacy of the current government. They want a solution to the
electoral irregularities,” he said.Bringing Malaysians closer

The PKR leader also said that the rallies have brought another positive
outcome; bringing Malaysians together irrespective of race and
religion. Rafizi added that Malaysians felt a sense of belonging and
togetherness like never before in the rallies, which had also helped
fire up the mood for change. “And I dare say that we are more
successful in bringing Malaysians together compared to the 1Malaysia
songs the government airs daily,” he said. On the same note, Johari accused Wan Ahmad of being “more Umno than Umno itself.” “I remember back in my student days in Universiti Malaya, a student forged his certificates to gain entry into the varsity. “The university only found out about it after three years. Despite being a good student, he was expelled from the varsity. “Similarly, we have a government which is elected into power through fraud. How is the EC going to address this?” he asked.
On the academics, Johari, who is also the organiser of the Black 505
rallies, said: “If they want us to stop, give us equal access in the
media to air our grouses.”-fmt

Why were the EC officers counting the ballots days earlier...

PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli produces two police reports which
claimed that the advance and postal ballots may have been compromised.PKR today produced more police reports on the alleged electoral fraud that happened during the recent general election.

This time, PKR strategy director Rafizi Ramli cast doubts on how the postal and advance voting system were conducted.

Speaking at a press conference held at the party headquarters, Rafizi
produced two police reports filed by PKR agents for discrepancies that
occurred at the Alor Gajah and Grik parliamentary seats.

In the police report lodged for the Alor Gajah seat, Rafizi said that
PKR agent Abu Hussin Tamby alleged that on April 30 he found several
Election Commission (EC) agents counting advance voting ballots at the
Alor Gajah police headquarters.

Abu Hussin was said to have seen this happening when he was escorting
several advance voting ballot boxes to the police headquarters, where
the advance and postal ballots were kept for the said parliamentary
seat.

“The election laws clearly say that the ballots should only be
counted on the polling day, which was May 5. So why were the EC officers
counting the ballots days earlier?” asked Rafizi.

On the report for the Grik parliamentary seat, PKR agent Shairi MD
Tajuddin lodged a police report alleging that advance ballot boxes from
the Pengkalan Hulu army camp (PGA Batallion 18) did not arrive at 5pm,
as promised by EC officials.

“Shairi waited till 7pm but the ballot boxes still did not arrive. So
he immediately lodged a police report saying that the ballots may have
been compromised.

“The EC officer in charge also supported his police report and disqualified the ballots when it arrived for the final tally.

“Although the ballots were disqualified, it shows how dubious and
cartoonish the whole electoral process was being conducted,” said
Rafizi.

More power for EC to help BN?

The newly minted Pandan MP also said that he doubted that Pakatan
Rakyat only managed to garner up 15% votes from the advance and postal
votes – the opposition’s record low.

This time around, there were about 500,000 voters who cast their ballots via post or advance voting.

Rafizi said with all the allegations of irregularities, the integrity of this half a million voters could be questioned.

“Before this, we could get at least 30% support from postal votes.
Even for my seat, only eight votes out of 126 advance ballots were cast
in my favour. It does not make sense,” said Rafizi.

On a related matter, Rafizi questioned the EC’s rationale in seeking
more powers from the Parliament to remove names from the electoral roll,
should they be registered under dubious addresses.

“I dare say that in light of Pakatan winning with between 20,000 to
30,000 majority votes in certain areas, the EC is afraid that the urban
voters may want to change their addresses and vote in their hometowns
instead.

“If that happens, that will be the end of Barisan Nasional as in many areas we lost with narrow margins,” he said.

Two days ago, EC deputy chairman Wan Ahmad Wan Omar said that the
electoral body was planning to seek power to “remove” voters who do not
live at the address stated, and update the registration in accordance
with the address listed in their MyKad.

More rallies planned

Meanwhile, PKR MP Johari Abdul, who is also the main organiser of the
Black 505 rallies, repeated the demand that the entire EC top officials
resign for failing to ensure free and fair 13th general election.

He also said that the new EC officials should be selected by a joint
committee, participated by both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan
representatives.

“Pending the appointment of the new EC officials, the government must
stop all re-delineation exercise or any amendments to the electoral
laws.

“We also demand by-elections at the 30 parliamentary seats that the results are disputed,” he said.

Johari announced that the next Black 505 rally would be held in
Perlis (June 10), followed by Kedah (June 11), Kelantan (June 12) and
Johor (June 14).-fmt

PKR reveals allegation of fraud in advance voting...

PKR today revealed two police reports that were lodged regarding alleged
fraud that had happened during the advance voting process for the 13th
general election.

Party director of strategy Rafizi Ramli (left)
said that one of the police reports lodged was regarding an incident
which took place in Malacca, where an Election Commission (EC) officer
allegedly counted ballot papers before the actual counting time.

The
second police report was regarding a ballot box that allegedly arrived
late to a counting centre in Gerik, Perak, for counting, thus causing
the ballots from the particular box to be rejected by officials.

"There
are doubtful circumstances in advance voting when not even eight
percent from all election results favoured Pakatan," he said during a
press conference at PKR headquarters today.

"So in a situation where we had 250,000 advance voters, today we are raising our misgivings about such things.”

In
the Malacca incident, PKR's counting agent Abu Hussin Tamby alleged to
have seen about seven to eight individuals donning EC uniforms counting
the ballots in a police lock-up.

According
to the report, which was lodged on May 2, the ballot box for early
voting was brought from the early voting centre at the Lubok China
police station to the lock-up at the Alor Gajah police district
headquarters on April 30.

This is despite the EC setting rules that the advance voting ballots be counted on the election day on May 5.

"After
accompanying officers to keep the ballot boxes in the lock-up, I
managed to witness officers in EC uniforms counting the ballot papers,"
Abu Hussin, 42, said in his police report.

In the incident that
took place in Gerik, meanwhile, another PKR counting agent Shairi Md
Tajuddin alleged in his report that a postal ballot bag from a polling
centre in Pengkalan Hulu did not arrive at the counting centre by the
stipulated time on May 5.

He blamed the delay on the EC, which
had resulted in the postal ballot bag being rejected, said Shahiri, 48,
in his May 15 report.

"I believe this is an offence that was
committed on purpose by the EC for the purpose of fraud in ensuring a
win for Umno and BN in the Gerik parliamentary seat and the Pengkalan
Hulu state seat," he said in his report.-malaysiakini

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